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EOS, a leading company in industrial 3D printing of metals and polymers, has announced an expansion of its EOSTATE monitoring suite in partnership with MTU Aero Engines.

EOSTATE Exposure OT, among the first commercial systems for optical tomography, now boasts real-time, camera-based monitoring of metal additive build processes. Supporting EOS’ M 290 system, the monitoring suite is able to fully map each part of the build process, layer by layer, regardless of its geometry or size.

The solution was developed in close collaboration with MTU Aero Engines, a German aircraft engine manufacturer. EOSTATE Exposure OT has allowed the company to reduce costs for downstream, non-destructive examination in technical computer tomography, since potentially defective parts can be rejected at an earlier stage. It was primarily developed for series manufacturing purposes and has already undergone months of successful testing. Two more pilot companies, Liebherr and IPC, will also continue to use the system after the pilot phase, looking to integrate it in their respective manufacturing processes.

“With EOSTATE Exposure, we are offering companies an even more comprehensive process monitoring and quality assurance,” said Dr Tobias Abeln, EOS Chief Technical Officer. “As such, we are helping customers meet the stringent inspection requirements for each component, particularly in sectors such as aerospace.

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“Quality assurance is essential in large-scale manufacturing where reproducible component qualities are of prime significance. Costs for quality assurance are significantly reduced as the monitoring process occurs early on at the build process stage. This has a positive impact on costs-per-part as well.”

Dr Jurgen Kraus, Senior Consultant Additive Manufacturing at MTU added: “At MTU Aero Engines we recognised the potential of additive manufacturing early on. However, until now we didn’t have the experience and the volume of data needed to sufficiently evaluate the quality of the parts and transfer the technology to large-scale manufacturing. The new OT solution has meanwhile proven itself in practical tests and we are very happy that other customers will now be able to benefit from it too. It provides genuine added value.”

Optical tomography involves the deployment of a high-resolution camera to seamlessly monitor the exposure process. Recording the building platform at high frequency in the near-infrared range throughout the AM process, detailed data on the melting behaviour of the material across the entire build can be fed back. EOS says the more users become familiar with its EOSTATE Exposure OT system, the better they can assess the quality and density of the parts they wish to build.